Dying For The One You Love
by SailorMoonFanForever
Summary: Clark asks Chloe a very serious question concerning events, involving Jimmy,from Doomsday. Can her answer lead to something more than friends? Will her answer change everything and alter their friendship forever. Chlark fluff!


**_AN: Hey all my fellow Smallville Chlarker's! Here is my second Chlark one-shot fanfic, hope you guys all like it. Beware: Don't read this if you are a Chimmy fan (Chloe and Jimmy), you've been warned. Here is something sweet and fluffy for all those people confused by the season 8 finale. Contains spoilers. Enjoy and please review!_**

Clark stared at Chloe for a second before turning and waking towards the exit. He couldn't believe he was actually doing this. Chloe's world was crashing around her and he was bailing. She had just been through so much, and she had no one left to turn to. Everyone was gone, Davis, Jimmy, Lois, and now him. He was the only person who could stay with her and be her wall of strength and he was leaving on some crazy idea that if he left town, he would be able to fight his inner Achilles' heel: his emotions, and seeing the good in everyone. He felt tears come to his eyes as he slowly walked away. He knew that he shouldn't be doing this, that he should stay with his best friend when she needed him the most, but couldn't help but walk away. It was easier. He stopped midway to the door when he felt Chloe grab his wrist.

" Clark!" she cried through sobs. " Don't leave me!"

Clark turned around and looked at Chloe's tear stained face. His own eyes focused on keeping the tears at bay. She looked up at him with watery eyes and slowly walked into his arms. She placed her head on his chest and held him tight, sobbing ever so gently. He'd held her like this a thousand times, but the situation had never been quite this drastic.

" Please Clark," she whispered, her voice wavering. " You're the only one I have left."

Clark's heart broke as he held his best friend, gently stroking her back. He couldn't believe that he had thought about leaving her. He wanted to hit himself for being so selfish. Sure, leaving was the easier way of dealing with all that had happened, and his feelings of responsibility for Jimmy's death, but leaving Chloe was going against everything his parents had ever taught him. No, he knew now as he held her, her small chest rising and falling slowly as she gasped in air, that he couldn't leave her. He loved her too much.

" Chloe," he said as he lowered his head and placed it gently on the top of hers. " Chlo, I'm so sorry. I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here."

Chloe held on tight, and the two stood there forever just holding unto each other for strength. Chloe stopped crying after quite some time, but the two still stayed there in each other's comforting arms. Chloe slowly moved her head away and smiled up at Clark. He smiled back, and gently picked her up in his arms. She looked at him, a little shocked at first, and then smiled as her shock faded into trust. She trusted the man before her with her life. It wasn't just anybody she would risk her life for. It wasn't just anybody that she would run away with a Kryptonian serial killer, to protect.

She sighed softly as she gazed at the stained red spot on the otherwise pristine carpet. Jimmy. He was dead. Her eyes drifted closed as the pain and sadness took over, finally wearing her out, draining her of all energy she had left. She felt an odd sensation, and then a soft breeze just before she fell into a peaceful dream, a dream in which Jimmy wasn't dead, that Davis had never come to Earth, and she was in the arms of her best friend.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clark sat there on the couch in his loft, gently holding his sleeping best friend, who was stretched out across him, her head gently resting on his knees. He would have moved, but he couldn't find the strength to move her and potentially wake the angel before him from her well-needed rest. For the man of steel, someone that nobody could harm, he felt more weaker than ever. He couldn't help Chloe. He couldn't save Jimmy from Davis, or Davis from Doomsday. It was his entire fault. This pain Chloe was in was all his doing. His grip tightened lightly on her shoulder.

While thinking of the blame that he knew fell on him, he couldn't help but wonder something. Chloe had been in that room with Davis and Jimmy. She'd seen Davis attack Jimmy; she'd seen that Jimmy was dying. She'd seen Davis coming towards her; she'd seen Jimmy, in his last surge of energy, kill Davis before falling on the floor. She'd been there. Why hadn't she saved her husband? She could have. He already knew her secret, and Davis had been dead at this point, so him finding out her secret couldn't have been an issue.

Clark sighed deeply as his mind tried to figure all this out. Chloe stirred gently, bringing his mind back to loft. She opened her eyes and stared up at his. She smiled softly, even after the day she'd been through and the previous events of the day before. His mind drifted back to when he had first entered the room that Jimmy had brought for Chloe's wedding present. The instant that Chloe had seen him, a huge smile had appeared on her face, lightening it up regardless to the funeral they had just attended. That to him, had been a little… unstable? Keeping his mind to himself he helped Chloe up from his lap so that she was sitting beside him. She faced him, her smile slowly fading.

" Clark," she said seriously. " Don't blame yourself for anything that happened today, okay? It's a miracle that you are alive… there was no way you could have saved Jimmy or Davis. You did the best you could, and no one holds that against you," she said softly, meaning herself.

Clark nodded. " I still feel responsible though," he said as he looked at her intensely.

" Chloe," he said softly, after a few minutes of silence, getting her attention, her bluish-green eyes focusing on his. " I was wondering something…" his voice trailed off, not wanting to bring up unpleasant memories.

" Yes?" she asked, waiting for him to continue.

Clark sighed and gently took her hand in his. " I don't want to upset you… or bring up any painful memories from yesterday but… I was wondering why you didn't---" his words were cut off by Chloe's.

" Save Jimmy?" she completed, as she lowered her head to stare at their entwined hands.

Chloe lifted her head as she felt Clark place his other hand on her chin and gently pull it up to face him. She sighed softly as tears came to her eyes again. This had been the question plaguing her mind since that every life altering moment. Why hadn't she? She loved Jimmy… she had told him this much as she held his dying body to hers. So then why hadn't she just reached down and taken away his pain? She could have saved him. She could have been with him at this very moment if she had.

Had it been the fear of her own death? The two times, in which she had brought someone back from the dead, she had died herself, only to be healed with time. The last time, she'd been "dead" for much longer than the first time. Still… that hadn't been it, had it? Wasn't true love supposed to be selfless and sacrificing?

She felt the tears slid down her face. She was just about to wipe them away when she felt warm fingers brushing them away for her. A faint blush crept on her cheeks, regardless of how much she tried not to. She didn't think that she would ever be able to feel his touch without making her heart race.

No matter how much she loved someone else; she would always love Clark more. He had been her first love and her best friend for years. He'd been her confidant, her partner, her other half for as long as she could remember. She knew everything that had ever happened to him, and him her. From being an alien from another planet, to his secret abilities, to Zod, Brainiac, evil Kryptonians, she knew everything.

She smiled softly at her best friend. " I don't know why, Clark," she whispered in a low voice.

Clark brought her into his arms. " I really didn't mean to make you re-live that moment, Chlo. I just was so confused as why you would save me, but not the man you were married to."

His head told him to stop, that he should apologize for bringing up this issue and for asking that very question. But his heart needed to know the answer. He loved Chloe, as his best friend, and possibly more. He cherished all the time they spent together, all the stolen kisses they'd shared. He wondered if Chloe was the reason why he could never make things work with girls, first Lana and now Lois. Had his secret feelings for her unknowingly shattered his previous relationships? Chloe had risked her life once to save Clark by using her healing powers, and tried to another time, both times being very willing to do this to save him. This is why he needed an answer, why him, just a friend, and not the man she loved? He needed answers to see if they had any chance in exploring the romance factor of their friendship again.

Chloe stared into his baby blues. " All I know is that if it had been you laying there, I wouldn't have hesitated. And this scares me. I would be more than willing to sacrifice my life for you, but not for my husband? Gosh, Clark what is wrong with me?" she cried as she gave into heart wrenching sobs that shook her body. Clark held her close.

" It's ok, Chloe," he said softly against her ear. " It's all over now, I'm sorry I brought it up."

Clark held unto Chloe as a long pause filled the air with silence. " Where does that leave us?" he whispered, even though there was no one near them. He knew his asking this was not really dropping the conversation, and he knew that him asking this question on the day of her husband's funeral was tacky, but he couldn't help himself. His heart needed to know how she felt.

" Clark…" Chloe started and then stopped, not knowing exactly what to say.

She had been through so much this past month, heck this past year, that she didn't know where her heart really lied. To be honest, she hadn't missed Jimmy all that much after he'd broken up with her at the hospital. She had been so focused on saving Clark's life from Davis, that she hadn't even dwelled on the breakup for more than a few days, and that had been when Clark's life had been seemingly free of harm from Davis. Chloe sighed. Everything that she had done this year had been clouded by Braniac on top of all things Davis and Doomsday.

Thinking back to her engagement to Jimmy, she couldn't help but realize that Clark had always come first. Had her whole relationship with Jimmy just been her trying to make a life for herself away from Clark, who'd clearly always been in love with Lana? Even from the very start of her relationship with Jimmy, she'd been in love with Clark. The first time she and Jimmy had meet, when they'd been reunited at the Daily Planet during Dark Thursday… at both monumental parts of their relationship she'd been in love with her best friend. But that left her where now?

" Clark. I have no idea where that leaves us… this month has been so crazy that I don't know where my feelings lie."

" Chloe, I understand, and I promise to give you time to sort this all out. I know my timing in crappy, given that you've loved me for years. I might be too late, you might always be Jimmy's now, but I need you to know that I will never leave you. I'll always be around and by your side even if you choice to stay loyal to Jimmy's memory."

" Clark…" Chloe said softly but was cut off by Clark's fingers on her lips.

" Shhh… don't say anything. I'll be waiting for you this time Chloe. One day when you're ready, I will embrace you with open arms, but until then, I will love you as a friend. If all the drama and problems I've been through all lead up to that very moment when you become mine, it will be more than worth it."

Chloe felt tears coming to her eyes, but not sad tears, rather tears of joy. Not thinking about the past month, not thinking about Davis or Doomsday or Jimmy, she leaned forwards and gently kissed Clark on the cheek. Holding his face in her hands, she smiled.

" I've always loved you Clark. I've never loved a man more than you. While I did love Jimmy, the love I shared with him… the relationship we had… never came close to what we have. I need some time to work through all this, and I don't want to rush into anything when I am kind of unstable given the past month. But I want you to know that soon, very soon, I will be ready to share everything I am with you, and to love you like no one else ever has."

Clark smiled back at Chloe and her heart melt. He gently kissed the corner of her mouth and then hugged her tightly to him. He didn't know when this had happened. He didn't know how his plans on leaving Smallville and Metropolis had caused this, but he couldn't be happier. Things were finally working out. He no longer would have to lie in a relationship because the girl in his arms knew everything. This time, he was certain that his love for his best friend would be the world's best romance adventure.

" You know something, Chlo," he said into her ear and he felt her shiver slightly. She tilted her head slightly to the side as she pulled away slightly so that she could see his eyes that held love and tenderness.

" I'm going to love you until the day we die," he said as he moved closer to her face, stopping when their lips were only inches away.

" And we are going to live forever," he finished as he claimed her lips in a gentle but loving kiss.


End file.
